This blog deals in all kinds of developments specially political in the biggest state of India. The content is produced by Dilip Awasthi, one of the senior most journalists of Uttar Pradesh. He has worked for some of the premier publications and television channels of India.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Mayawati has Mulayam on a sticky wicket

Lucknow, July 2, 2008

Chief minister Mayawati's clever twist by calling nuclear deal anti-Muslim has Samajwadi Party (SP) and its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on a sticky wickets. As a result Mulayam's younger brother and senior SP functionary Shivpal Singh Yadav convened a media conference today to call Mayawati's statement "mischievous and politically angled". But a group of important Sunni and Shia Muslim religious leaders called on Mayawati this afternoon and openly came out in support of her views.

Mayawati had in a press conference yesterday lambasted the Samajwadi Party for joining hands with the Congress and by doing so supporting the nuke deal. Terming Yadav as a great ‘opportunist,’ Mayawati said that he had decided to back the Congress on the issue of nuclear deal in spite of the fact that it had been widely opposed in the country and enraged Muslims in particular. “The cause for this is that the deal has been done at the cost of cheap gas from Iran,” she said.

Shivpal Singh today had to come out in defence of his party's position. He also charged," Mayawati has always joined hands with communal forces and the Muslims are too familiar with her real character." As he did the explaining, a parallel press conference was held by a Muslim SP MP and some former SP leaders to criticise the likely tie-up with Congress. Said SP MP from Muzzaffarnagar Munnawar Hasan in presence of former SP minister Gauri Shanker, "The party's interest is being traded away by Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh, who has struck a deal with US."

About Me

Has been a journalist working in Uttar Pradesh for the last 38 years. He has worked with top publications including India Today, The Times of India, Dainik Jagran.
He has had the opportunity to work with some of the top editors of the country like Aroon Purie, Girilal Jain, Inder Malhotra, Suman Dubey, T.N. Ninan, Inderjit Badhwar, SN Ghosh to name a few.
He has covered the top politicians of the country including Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh, Chandrashekhar, Atal Behari Vajpai, Narayan Datt Tiwari, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kanshi Ram, Mayawati, Kalyan Singh. He has reported the Ayodhya tangle since it started in 1984 and covered the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 for India Today magazine. He has also covered journalistic assignments in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Belgium, Turkey, Mauritius, China, Sri Lanka and Nepal. He has two books under my belt - one on journalism titled "The Special Correspondent", and a collection of satires in Hindi called "Kyunki Ye Dil Hai Hindustani".